The Lagoon

"Are you going to the surface again?" 

A concerned voice brought Lucretia to a halt as she was pushing her way through the seaweed entrance barrier. With a sigh, the mermaid turned to face the newcomer. She was met with a familiar face, another fellow mermaid with flowing chestnut locks and soft round features. She had a far more tanned skin tone, however, in direct contrast to Lucretia's pallor.

"Yes, Sienna," Lucretia replied to her impatiently. "You know how frequently I need to feed, unlike you freshwater mermaids, and these miserable fish at the bottom of the lagoon aren't going to cut it." 

"Then you have to be more careful!" Sienna urged her. "You were nearly spotted last time. If the hunters know we're here, we're all going to be in trouble!"

"Of course, of course," came Lucretia's patronizing reply. "I know what I'm doing. I've been hunting for centuries before you were even born."

With that, she propelled herself upwards in a single powerful sweep of her tail, and Sienna's anxious mutterings quickly faded away. 

Her stomach growled. Indeed, she was very hungry and she would have gone up to the surface to feed two weeks ago if the leader of the tribe had not expressly forbidden her from doing so. Even now,  she was still technically sneaking off, but she trusted Sienna not to spill the beans on her.

Whatever. She wouldn't care even if the leader did find her about her willful disobedience. She was older and stronger than any of these pacifistic freshwater mermaids, and they had no right to control her. Her staying among their ranks was nothing but a mere formality. It would be somewhat awkward if she had to share this pathetically small lagoon with them should they become enemies.

As soon as her head broke through the surface of the water, she spotted her prey immediately. Two humans had set up camp by the shore on the far side of the lagoon.

The sun had already set over the mountains in the distance and the forest around the lagoon was dark. Lucretia's eyes naturally adjusted to the darkness. This was the perfect time for hunting. 

She swam over towards the humans, keeping under the surface of the water or hiding behind outcrops of rocks to ensure that they did not catch sight of her. As she approached, she was struck by an impulsive and rebellious thought. She hauled herself up onto a flat boulder right by the human's campsite and spoke.

"Hello there."

Of course, she knew that the humans would not understand her, and would only be able to perceive a chittering sound. The sound was enough to alert them, however, and they spun around, staring at her with faces completely blank in shock.

It was amusing to see their expressions twist from alarm to confusion, then to a mixture of wonder and fear. Lucretia knew how attractive she looked to them in this form. Just an innocent fair young maiden. She tossed out her long silky raven hair and smiled warmly at the humans. 

One of the humans took a step closer to her and reached out as if to touch her. Lucretia had to force herself not to recoil away in disgust. Instead, she leaned towards the human, until her face was right up in theirs. 

In a flash, she sank her razor sharp teeth into the human's throat. Fresh blood spurted from the wound, splattering onto the ground and gushing into her ravenous jaws. The human let out a choked gurgle and fell limp.

There was a scream from the other human, and Lucretia knew she ought to take care of them quickly as well, but she was just too hungry right now. She tore into her prey's flesh greedily and within a few seconds, the human was reduced to nothing more than bone and bloody scraps. She knocked the human's remains into the lagoon with a sweep of her tail. 

The other human was now nowhere to be seen, their scent was fresh and Lucretia could still hear their footsteps. She willed herself to transform, biting back a wince of pain as her tail split and morphed into human legs. She pushed herself onto shaky legs and took a hesitant step forward. 

It had been a while since she had last tried to walk, but it wasn't a difficult task to get the hang of again. Soon she was sprinting through the forest after the escaping human at full speed, which she was pleased to note was far faster than a human's miserable strides. However, the human did still have a head start and they were almost at the edge of the forest. To make things worse, her powers were draining the further she went from her source of water.

She could now see the human up ahead and she removed a single hairpin from her head. As soon as the hairpin was unclipped, it transformed into a long golden trident that had its forks shaped with jagged edges. She flung the trident at the human and it pierced them through the shoulder. The human staggered forward, but to Lucretia's amazement and horror, they simply wrenched out the trident and continued to run. 

In the distance, the road by the edge of the forest appeared. Lucretia could spot a single parked vehicle. She pushed herself to go faster but the exertion of the chase proved too much. She stumbled to a halt, gasping for air through her newly formed human lungs. 

Her brief pause had given the human the chance to slip into the car and hightail down the road. 

Lucretia cursed. There was little more she could do as the car vanished into the night. 

She was never telling anyone about this.

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Leo stared at the wooden signpost by the forest path. 

"Emerald Lagoon Forest", the faded words proclaimed, and below another sign was tacked on. "Caution: Do not enter!"

He heaved his bag of supplies over his shoulder, and continued down the path resolutely, ignoring the dread building in the pit of his stomach. 

This was supposed to be a normal weekend. He had meant to spend it finishing up his homework or maybe catching up with some normal friends. Just being normal in general, you know.

Yet he had received that damned call (from his parents no less), asking him to check out a potential red zone. He was informed that some random hiker had been attacked by mermaids of all things. Blasted mermaids. Why couldn't they turn out like those nice friendly mermaids from that Disney movie? No, instead they just had to be terrifying, flesh-eating monsters.

This was his reality since he was born. And Leo wanted no part of it. Yet, he could never bring himself to simply ignore the threat when human lives were at risk, especially since he seemed to be the only qualified hunter in the entire state.

He soon arrived at the end of the forest path, and ahead of him lay a calm expanse of blue water. A slight breeze formed small ripples upon the surface of the water, but other than that, it was completely still. It looked just like any other regular lagoon, not the creepy bubbling swamp that Leo was expecting. However, Leo knew better than to trust appearances. 

He dumped his heavy bag of supplies to the ground and started to set up his campsite. Ideally, he won't be staying here for the whole night, but he had to put on a show. 

By the time night fell, his tent was propped up and he had a small campfire going. On the sandy shore of the lagoon, he had also drawn a large circle of intricate sigils. Currently, he sat on a rock by the edge of the water, one hand resting on a half-open cloth bag while the other unwrapped a sandwich. He wondered what he would do if the mermaid didn't even show up, but his doubts were quickly assuaged when he heard a small splash of water from behind him.

He turned and came face to face with the mermaid, who didn't look much like what he had expected either. Her top half appeared no different from that of a regular human girl, save for a pair of strange fin-like protrusions from the sides of her head. Her figure was lean and athletic (and no she was not wearing a seashell bra, but rather a simple silk top). She had long glossy black hair that occasionally shimmered blue, as well as a pair of glowing amber eyes. Her bottom half, of course, was a long fish tail with shimmering blue and black scales. 

She was smiling at Leo, her expression gentle and warm. But Leo was not about to start trusting appearances. He slipped his hand into the cloth bag, and the mermaid seemed to notice his movement. Her gaze grew sharp and alert immediately, before melting back into that friendly smile. 

She said something to him in that odd chittering voice of mermaids and leaned in closer. Leo held his breath.

In the next moment, a hand shot out lightning quick and grabbed onto his wrist. The next thing he knew, he was falling from the rock, and he crashed into the murky lagoon waters with a loud splash. 

His world drowned in the chilly darkness and silence of the lagoon waters, but he was ready for it. In one hand he clutched a harpoon gun, loaded with a single iron bolt and ready to fire.

The mermaid was still gripping on tightly to his wrist and he could make out her shape as she lunged forward to bite him. He fired the bolt. 

An ear-piercing screech reverberated throughout the lagoon and blood flooded the water all around him. Taking his chance, Leo started to swim furiously towards the surface. He clutched onto the harpoon gun with all his strength to prevent it from being jerked out of his grip by the desperately flailing mermaid attached to it.

His head broke through the water surface and he clambered onto the shore quickly. Immediately he started to retract the iron bolt from the water, which was a tremendously difficult feat given the mermaid's violent struggles. Thankfully, the iron seemed to have reduced her strength, but still, if she managed to detach herself from the bolt, the game was up. 

Moments later, a screeching and thrashing mermaid emerged from the surface of the water, and Leo barely managed to drag her slightly further up the shore, directly into the sigil circle he had drawn on the ground. As soon as the mermaid tried to scrabble out of the circle, she jerked back as if she had been shocked. She let out a ragged wheezing sound. With one last burst of effort, she yanked the iron bolt out from where it was buried in her side. 

Her blood spilled onto the sand, but as she was still drenched in lagoon water, her wound healed almost instantly. 

Leo pulled the iron bolt back into the harpoon gun and poised it above the mermaid's head, ready to deal the killing blow. The mermaid was glaring at him with dark fury, her golden eyes burning with rage and hatred. 

Leo took a deep breath and dropped the harpoon gun. 

He couldn't do it. He could never bring himself to actually kill a monster, even though he was well aware of the threat they posed. In the end, they were just trying to survive like him.

He was a rubbish hunter. He just wanted a normal life.

Leo glanced at the mermaid again, who was looking at him in surprise. There was also a slight curiosity in her gaze, but not a single trace of fear despite the imminent threat of death.

In the next moment, however, she started coughing and wheezing again, letting out half-choked screeches that pierced Leo's eardrums. Her tail lashed against the ground, sending up sprays of sand. Shiny scales showered onto the ground like snow.

She was dying, Leo realized. Trapped in her mermaid form out of water, she could not last more than a few minutes. It would be so easy right now to simply walk away and let the mermaid die, but somehow letting her suffer the horrible drawn-out pain of suffocation seemed even crueller than to put her out of her misery with one shot.

With a sigh, Leo reached over for his supply bag and retrieved a slab of frozen (animal) meat. He tossed it into the sigil circle, where it landed right in front of the mermaid. The mermaid stared at him with incredulity and disgust, as if to say you can't seriously expect me to eat this garbage?

Leo crossed his arms. "Well, eat it or die, suit yourself."

The mermaid made an irritated chittering sound but grabbed the slab of meat. Leo blinked and it was gone.

The mermaid started to transform, her fish tail splitting in half and each half morphing into a human leg. The fins at the sides of her head disappeared too and soon, sitting in the magic sigil circle was just a regular (and thankfully clothed) human girl.

The mermaid, now a normal girl, got to her feet and crossed her arms as well, mimicking Leo. She was surprisingly tall, and she even dwarfed Leo in height.

"You're a hunter," she said to him with a slight sneer on her face.

"Uh huh," Leo raised an eyebrow. "How observant of you."

"Why didn't you kill me then?" She demanded. 

Leo shrugged, averting his gaze uncomfortably. "I don't know. I don't like killing stuff."

"Let me guess, you're going to tell me to stop eating humans now." The mermaid smirked at him.

Leo grimaced. Of all the mermaids he could have caught, he caught a snarky one. "It'd be most kind of you if you could do that." 

"Nope, not a chance. In fact, you might as well as take that harpoon gun and shoot me right through the head, because that would simply be less painful than starving to death."

"Look," Leo took a step closer to her. "I'm sure you don't want to die as much as I don't want to kill you. We can work something out. But first, what's your name?"

"Lucretia." The mermaid inclined her head slightly. "You?"

"It's Leo." He continued. "Uh, Lucretia? Can't you hunt and eat animals instead of humans? You just ate a slab of beef. There's plenty of legal game in these woods, and plenty of fish in the lagoon."

"No way!" Lucretia sounded as indignant as if Leo had just suggested that she eat her own tail. "That's just so…undignified! And do you know how repulsive animal meat tastes!?"

She gave an exaggerated shudder. 

Leo sighed again. This was going to be a long night.

"Are there more of you?" He asked Lucretia, casting a glance out onto the surface of the lake in case a mermaid army was emerging to rescue their comrade. "Other mermaids?"

Lucretia's eyes grew wide for a moment before she pursed her lips. "Yes, but…they're different from me. They don't eat humans, so you have no reason to go bother them."

There was a slight warning edge to her voice, but Leo pressed on.

"Why are you different from them?"

"Well, they're freshwater mermaids. They've only ever eaten fish at the bottom of the lagoon for all of their lives. I'm a saltwater mermaid. I came from the sea, which means that I'm lucky enough to have a diet that consists of passing sailors and pirates thrown overboard."

"Huh." That was new information. "Why are you living in a lagoon then?"

Lucretia was running a hand through her hair as if she was somewhat embarrassed. "This lagoon was part of the sea a thousand years ago. I might have pissed off the wrong sea witch, who might have put me to sleep for a thousand years. The next thing I knew when I woke up, I was stuck in this lagoon."

"Hmmm." That gave Leo an idea. "What if I brought you back to the sea?"

So that she can go back to luring sailors into the depth of the ocean? Another small part of his brain questioned. But so far this was the best alternative he could come up with. The sea definitely out of his jurisdiction, so she'd be some other hunter's problem. And if any sailors were stupid enough to be charmed into the ocean by a mermaid, well, that was on them.

Lucretia considered that for a moment before she made a face. "I suppose that could work. But the sea is going to be so different when I get back. Despite everything, I actually like it here. Though I guess I don't have a choice, huh."

Leo nodded. "That settles it then. How long can your human form last? The closest beach is a two hour's drive away."

Lucretia shrugged. "An hour? Maybe less?" 

Then her gaze turned sharp and devious as she grinned. "I could last longer if I had some human flesh."

"Out of the question."

Leo offered her another suggestion. "I could bring you back to my apartment first. That's only half an hour away. Then I can get you a tank or something, and we can drive you to the beach."

"A tank big enough for me?" Lucretia raised an eyebrow. 

"I have…connections," Leo assured her simply.

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say. Now let me out of this circle."

Here came the moment he was dreading. Leo picked up the harpoon gun again and levelled it to point at Lucretia.

"No funny movements." With a single foot, he wiped away one of the sigils drawn into the sand. He steeled himself, watching Lucretia intently.

The mermaid merely stepped out of the circle and stretched. "What? I'm not going to attack you. Even if I did kill you, a platoon of hunters will come down to the lagoon to wipe all of us mermaids out, right?"

"Uh, you can bet on that." Leo lied hastily. 

"Still, after you," he insisted, gesturing to the forest path. Lucretia rolled her eyes and headed down the path without a single glance back.

When Leo followed after her, he heard yet another small splash from the lagoon. He turned to look back and caught sight of a single brown head peeking out from the surface of the water. As soon as he blinked, the head was gone as if it had just been a figment of his imagination. The lagoon was calm once more.